First Time Bread: Baguettes!

Somehow, four months after quarantine began, I still hadn't made bread. I was so glad to have a day off of work on Monday and have enough time for a longer recipe! I'm super happy with how my baguettes turned out -- gone in a day -- and I'll definitely be making these again soon.

When I was looking for recipes online, I was surprised to see that nearly all of them were written for aerated baguette pans. These pans are curved and dotted with holes so that the baguettes cook more evenly and have a light texture on the bottom. I was lucky enough to borrow one from a friend, and I made two on that and two on a sheet pan to try both. Using a sheet pan will be easier in the future, but it's good to know the (very minor) difference firsthand.

Most bread recipes call for the dough to rise for an hour or two on its own, but this one involves a decent amount of stopping and starting. Preparation was very simple: only a few ingredients and easy mixing. When I've made French recipes before, I've converted grams to customary system measurements, so this time I decided to be more exact and use a kitchen scale, especially since I was using yeast.

Measuring 500 grams of flour, 7 grams of yeast, and 9 grams of salt was easy, but since I have no readily accessible way to measure 34 centiliters of lukewarm water, 1 1/3 cup was just fine. I mixed dry ingredients together with a fork, added the water, and slowly kneaded until no more flour remained at the bottom. I worried at first that my dough was too dry, either from over-kneading or not using enough water, but it had the right slightly sticky consistency. I lightly dusted a wooden cutting board with flour and shaped the dough into a ball to let it rise under a towel. After half an hour, I folded the dough into itself a few times to "wake it up" and covered it for another 30 minutes.

The second uncovering revealed a much larger ball of dough! I cut it into four pieces, twisted each into a long baguette shape, and made a few incisions in the opposite direction of the twist. This makes the signature cracked top!

Before baking, the shaped dough rises for half an hour under a towel yet again. I preheated the oven to 450 degrees and then lightly brushed the baguettes with water just before baking. This can also be done with a spray bottle, which I didn't have, so a silicone brush did the trick. The water adds to the crackly crust on top.

The baguettes only bake for 15 minutes, but I rotated the pans halfway through to make sure they came out the same way. They were perfect -- I was so worried at the end that they would be too hard!

I'll have to work on rolling the dough into a regular shape next time...the four sections were all the same size, but I could have made them a little longer and skinnier. Either way, they all cooked evenly and the centers were done!

I took a ton of photos because I was really excited about how well it went! I have to admit, I was hesitant about making bread for awhile because it was new, but this was an easy recipe and one that I'm glad to know. It's also encouraging to succeed with baguettes before making croissants, which will probably be my next project...and I really enjoy following the recipe in French.